Menu

“I Need You Lord” – Our Perpetually Satisfied Need

You’re about to eat a meal on the table in front of you that your mom made for you. Before you take your first bite you turn to your mom and say, “Mom, I’m really hungry.” Puzzled, your mom responds, “Well, then eat the food I made for you. It’s right in front of you. What are you waiting for?”

I believe that’s what God feels like sometimes when we say to him, “God, I need you.”

“I know buddy. But you already have me. So let’s talk, hang out, live life together. What are you waiting for?”

Yes, humans need God, and it’s important that everybody acknowledge that in their daily living.

As believers, however, we shouldn’t be telling God that we need him. Why? Because he already knows that, and he’s provided for that need.

We are never without God. We have been filled with the fullness of the Godhead (Colossians 2:9-10), and he ain’t goin nowhere (John 14:16).

“But I tell him to remind myself that I need him.”

The fact that you regularly tell God that you need him, though, shows that you don’t really need reminding.

This language is especially important for people who don’t know that they have God. If everyone around a new believer is saying “I need God” they will start to think that they do too (which is okay), but they will also start to think that they don’t have God yet (which is not okay).

In human relationships when we need something from another person we express that need by saying “I need ____” (and talking like this implies that the person saying it doesn’t yet have what they are claiming they need). It would be totally weird if someone expressed a need for something they already have – like talking about how hungry they are when there’s a meal right in front of them.

When we say we need something, we acknowledge a lack. When we say we need God, we acknowledge a nonexistent lack.

Technically, “I need God” is a true statement, but it’s silly because it’s unnatural in normal speech to say you need something you already have, and it’s unhelpful because it gets us focusing on the wrong thing.

God’s provision for you is greater than your nonexistent lack.

So. What are you waiting for?

God is fully available. Always.

He’s always with you. He never leaves. You may have forgotten about him, but he was, is, and will be always with you.

I don’t talk about needing God. I’m not desperate for him. I don’t cry out for him. I’m not looking for him. I’m not seeking him.

I’m enjoying him.

I’m experiencing life with him.

I’m not saying we are self-sufficient. Rather, we are Christ-sufficient.

“Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God…” (2 Corinthians 3:4-5).